New Journal: UnMediated: Politics & Communication

UnMediated: Journal of Politics and Communication is pleased to announce an open call for submissions for its inaugural issue, to appear in print and online in early summer 2017. Abstracts and subsequent essays should be theoretically substantial but accessible, with a view to engaging a broad spectrum of readership. Submissions are sought in particular from those in communication and media studies, political science, information and computer sciences, and visual and performing arts; additionally, submissions are welcome both from independent researchers and those with a current institutional affiliation.

THEME

Whether through written word or visual narrative, submissions to the inaugural issue of UnMediated should explore the notion of communication on the margins. This thematic necessarily rests on the belief that changes in the social and material environment at once influence and are influenced by divergent communications practices. From the mediation of mass migration to the challenges of data-driven infrastructure development, this issue will examine how practices of communication intersect with and augment the structural dimensions of daily political life among marginalized people, locales, and movements. Possible topics might include, but are by no means limited to:

The journalistic gaze: intellectual copyright and (self)representation of marginalized peoples

Tomorrow’s harvest: digital exclusion and the age of data-driven infrastructure and design

Abstention, refusal, and the (im)permanence of digital memory

Visualization, interactivity, and the aestheticization of political literacy

Political consequences of crowdfunding, upvoting, and the will of the majority